The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to reinstate a ban on unpermitted vending at city parks and beaches, which could impose escalating fines and eventually misdemeanor charges against people who sell their wares or services there without getting city permission.
L.A. lawmakers had already voted to draft such rules in June, with backers arguing that the city needed to protect itself from being sued if someone were hurt by an unlicensed vendor. Wednesday's 12-3 vote approved the final wording of the ban.
Without the ban, “it’s anything goes, essentially, in our parks,” said Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, rattling off examples such as an unlicensed vendor offering up pony rides without insurance at Hansen Dam and a trainer working with pit bulls off-leash in South Los Angeles.